Gang of Four
The Gang of Four (siren bang) is the name given to the four most influential supporters of the Chinese Cultural Revolution in its later stages, other than Mao Zedong (1893–1976). The group's main focus of activities was in Shanghai. There were three men, Zhang Chunqiao (1917–1991?), Yao Wenyuan (b. 1931), and Wang Hongwen (1935–1992), and one woman, Jiang Qing (1914–1991). According to the official Chinese Communist Party (CCP) version of history since the early 1980s, it was their arrest and overthrow on 6 October 1976 that signaled the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976).
The term "gang of four" was actually coined by Mao. It was first used publicly in a speech given by Beijing CCP First Secretary Wu De (1910–1995) on 24 October 1976 to an enormous crowd in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing. After Wu's speech, the term was widely used in China, with these four being blamed for virtually all the ills of the Cultural Revolution.
All except Wang Hongwen had been members of the CCP Politburo since April 1969. In August 1973, Zhang Chunqiao was added to the Politburo Standing Committee, the most powerful governing body in China, while Wang Hongwen became not only a member of the standing committee but a CCP deputy chairman as well. In July 1977, the CCP Central Committee dismissed all four from all posts, accusing them of being "bourgeois careerists, conspirators and counterrevolutionary double-dealers."
Jiang Qing, Mao's wife, had been extremely powerful since 1966 as a member of the Cultural Revolution Group, the body Mao set up that year to guide the Cultural Revolution, and she also gained power by being the person who transmitted instructions from Mao. Her best-known initiative was the reform of the Chinese theater, involving elimination of traditional items among many other changes. Zhang Chunqiao was noted as a radical ideologue, and it was he who led the abortive Shanghai People's Commune of January 1967. In November 1965, Yao Wenyuan wrote an article in a Shanghai newspaper that at the time was credited with launching the earliest stage of the Cultural Revolution.
The members of the gang of four were tried by a special court toward the end of 1980. They were accused of a range of crimes, especially of persecuting large numbers of people, including CCP and state leaders. Jiang Qing was most vocal in her own defense, arguing that she was simply carrying out Mao's wishes, despite which all four were convicted. Actually, she was right in the sense that none of the four could have done what they did without Mao's support, and it was he, not they, who was leading the Cultural Revolution. However, the Chinese press went to considerable lengths to clear Mao of any criminal motivation or action, instead laying blame on the gang.
The court issued its verdicts against the gang on 25 January 1981. It sentenced Jiang Qing and Zhang Chunqiao to death with two-year reprieves. As it happened, neither was executed, and Jiang committed suicide in May 1991. Zhang Chunqiao died in prison, probably in 1991. Wang Hongwen was sentenced to life imprisonment, dying in 1992, while Yao Wenyuan was given twenty years but was released in October 1996.
Further Reading
Bonavia, David. (1984) Verdict in Peking: The Trial of the Gang of Four. London: Burnett Books.
Hsiung, James C. ed., with documents prepared by Hongdah Chiu. (1981) Symposium: The Trial of the "Gang of Four" and Its Implication in China. Baltimore, MD: School of Law, University of Maryland.
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